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Every precaution taken to avoid ‘wildlife’ interrupting Bathurst

By
Tom Howard & Mat Coch

Sunday 7th October, 2018 - 8:06am

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A mob of kangaroos near the Esses on Thursday pic: Dewi Jones

The Bathurst Regional Council is doing all it can to prevent an influx of local wildlife in the Mount Panorama region from interrupting today’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

It is understood drought conditions out west has resulted in an increase in kangaroos in and around Bathurst searching for food.

During opening practice on Thursday a kangaroo found its way onto the circuit, triggering a red flag.

“I heard there was some action,” Jamie Whincup told Speedcafe.com following the opening day of practice.

“They (the council) do a very good job. It’s been up-specced this year as well, the wildlife deterrents.

“Hopefully they do a good job, we don’t want to see any wildlife on the track, but we’re not concerned about it at this stage from a team’s point of view.”

Since Thursday there have been no further stoppages caused by wildlife, though the council is continuing to do all it can to ensure that run continues throughout today’s race.

However, the council is limited in what it can do to prevent animals from making their way onto the 6.213km circuit.

“We have got several kilometres of permanent fences in place and we have also got a number of temporary fences that we put up specifically for this event,” Darren Sturgiss, Bathurst Regional Council’s director of engineering services told Speedcafe.com.

“We are essentially not allowed to drive, push or exclude the kangaroos out. We are also advised that we are unlikely to ever have a cull again in terms of issues we have had.

“Certainly we have an active sweep of the track every morning and the purpose of that is to identify where there might be kangaroos on circuit.

“They are encouraged to another spot in a sympathetic manner given we are not allowed to cause the animal any stress.

“I’ve got to say the kangaroo population seems to have increased in a lot of places, and not just Mount Panorama,” he added.

“We will take every precaution we can that is reasonable but there are no guarantees. We will do what we can.

“We have teams around the circuit that monitor the locations of kangaroos during the entire race weekend. We do keep a close eye on their movements and encourage them to other areas.”